Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has said she’s not running for the U.S. Senate. So has U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton.

Colorado’s newest attorney general, Cynthia Coffman, holds her hands in the air with her husband, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, as she prepares to give her acceptance speech in 2014. ( By Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)

As I explained to Coffman, you might be saying you’re not running but other people keep bringing up your names. That’s why I’m putting you and others on the list.

Let’s not forget, Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner initially said he wasn’t interested in running for the U.S. Senate. Then he changed his mind and decided to challenge U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, in November. Now Gardner’s the U.S. senator.

A year ago, Republican Cory Gardner created a firestorm in Colorado when he proposed that the pill should be available to women over the counter. Now the controversy has moved to the U.S. Senate and to no one’s surprise it involves Obamacare.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Cory, Gardner, a Republican, both of Colorado. (AP/Getty Images)

Last month, Gardner and other Republican senators introduced the Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act, which would incentivize manufacturers to make an over-the-counter pill. It also would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s restriction on the use of health, medical and flexible savings accounts to pay for those prescriptions.

Today Democrats blasted the GOP effort when they introduced the Affordability IS Access Act. Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is a co-sponsor. The bill would “build on contraception coverage access in the Affordable Care Act by ensuring that when the FDA approves birth control pills for over the counter use, they will be covered without cost sharing and without the need for a prescription,” according to a news release.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the GOP bill was like offering someone a single shoe: “You really need the pair.”

Said Gardner: “It’s unfortunate they have decided to bring partisanship to an issue that could have brought support on Capitol Hill but we are pleased they are following our lead.”

Social media and sad colleagues helped mark the passing of state Rep. John Buckner, the Democrat from Aurora who remained a soft-spoken but powerful champion of education after he moved from the school house to the state house.

Buckner died Thursday. He had fought a respiratory condition for awhile, but his condition worsened in the last few months. He wore an oxygen tube some days, and as the session wound down to the May 6 adjournment, he took a leave of absence and wrote a good-humored note to his fellow lawmakers apologizing for his excused absence. House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst read the note aloud to the chamber.

“I’m very saddened,” Hullinghorst said Friday morning, reached by phone at her home in Boulder County. “John was a wonderful friend and a great colleague to have in the legislature.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, and emcee Steffan Tubbs from KOA radio at a breakfast in downtown Denver Wednesday to discuss Colorado’s energy future. (The Denver Post)

Gov. John Hickenlooper told the state’s energy movers and shakers Wednesday that if there are fracking initiatives on the ballot in 2016 he doubts they will have “significant” money behind them.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, discussed Colorado’s energy future at a breakfast in downtown Denver. They agreed on many issues, including expanding opportunities for global oil exports. Gardner called
Colorado’s energy opportunities the “envy of the world” and said “let’s keep it going.”

After the breakfast, Hickenlooper said the “tenor” now isn’t anything like it was in 2014 when the state was fighting over fracking.

The reaction to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s legislation aimed at making certain forms of birth control available over the counter was met with criticism and skepticism by several groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner today made good on his promise to push for over-the-counter contraceptives, introducing legislation to encourage drug manufacturers of “routine-use contraceptives” to file an application with the FDA to sell their products over the counter.

Sen. Cory Gardner is co-sponsoring legislation that would make certain forms of contraception over the counter. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

“Since ‘the pill’ was first approved 44 years ago, it’s been one of the most proven and tested pharmaceuticals of our time,” Gardner said in his piece. “It is safe, reliable, effective, and presents very few risks or complications for the more than 10 million women who use it. When other drugs have that kind of track record, we approve them for purchase without a prescription; the Food and Drug Administration has already reclassified over 100 different treatments to sell their products over the counter.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, left, and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, take a look at the South Platte River near the National Western Stock Show campus last weekend. (Photo by Gardner’s office)

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner took a tour over the weekend of the National Western Stock Show to scope out Denver city officials’ plans for a massive project on the site.

Those plans will get a boost Wednesday when Gov. John Hickenlooper signs legislation allowing the state to raise up to $250 million, by entering lease-purchase agreements, to pay for much of Colorado State University’s role in the new National Western Center. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and stock show leaders have a $856 million plan — in addition to the newly approved state funding — to remake the site over the next decade into a year-round tourism, event and education center.

But Hancock, a Democrat who was on hand for the Republican senator’s weekend tour of the stock show and other sites north of downtown, also is pursuing federal avenues to help projects that are part of the city’s North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative. Gardner wasn’t the first lawmaker to get a look at the project areas.

Bennet’s re-election contest is considered one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the 2016 election, particularly given Colorado’s swing-state status and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s upset bid against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall in 2014.

“I think for Colorado to have the strongest presence in the U.S. Senate it is going to take a fairly independent voice that will address some of the key issues in our state,” Roberts said by phone. “I feel like I have that to offer, if I decide to run.”

A Denver Public Schools pension bill that was killed in a GOP-controlled Senate committee amid allegations Republicans were worried about former DPS superintendent Michael Bennet’s U.S. Senate race was quietly re-introduced in the House this week.

House Bill 1392, which would allow DPS to make the same payment into the state pension fund as other school districts, received initial approval Friday evening, and is scheduled to be voted on Monday morning. Reps. Jim Wilson, a Salida Republican who is a former school superintendent, and Lois Court, a Denver Democrat, sponsored the measure.

They sponsored the original bill, House Bill 1251, which sailed through the House on a 55-9 vote, but died 3-2 on a party-line vote in the Senate committee with little debate or discussion.

“We’ll see what happens,” Court said.

Backers told The Denver Post that Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, told them national Republicans didn’t want to see a bill passed that potentially could help Bennet, a Democrat up for re-election next year. Hill responded his chief concern is the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s solvency is a “real ticking time bomb,” but he acknowledged people told him they had concerns about “some bad deals that were cut” when Bennet oversaw Denver schools.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.